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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22796938">Give Them A Chance To Be Heard</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unused_dishes/pseuds/Unused_dishes'>Unused_dishes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>All For The Game - Nora Sakavic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Edgar Allan Ravens (All For The Game), Implied/Referenced Character Death, Raven Neil Josten</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 18:27:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,601</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22796938</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unused_dishes/pseuds/Unused_dishes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A letter from Joseph Meinit, backliner for the Edgar Allen Ravens, to the media, exposing the truth of what goes on in the Nest when no one is looking.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>111</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Give Them A Chance To Be Heard</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>To Whom It May Concern,</p><p> </p><p>My name is Joseph Meinit. I am a backliner for the Edgar Allen Ravens, and I have information on the current investigation into the university.</p><p> </p><p>By the time a copy of this letter reaches any of the countless places I sent them to, the investigation should be well under way. There will probably be speculation about what happened, and maybe my name has come up. I wonder what they said happened to me? Did I vanish under mysterious circumstances? Was it suicide? </p><p> </p><p>Whatever the rumors are, they aren’t true. I am going to be killed for sending this letter. That's my ‘cause of death’. In fact, by the time anyone reads this, I will probably have been dead for awhile.</p><p> </p><p>Why? You must be asking. What did you do?</p><p> </p><p>The answer? I am doing what no one else seems capable of doing. I am notifying the police, and public, what really goes on in the Nest.</p><p> </p><p>That doesn’t sound bad, does it? Nothing worthy of death, surely. An act that most would consider good. I agree, but it is a little more complicated than I make it sound.</p><p> </p><p>    Here is how it started: I joined the Edgar Allen Ravens. An exciting, ruthless, unbeatable exy team. I got a scholarship to one of the best universities in the country; I got a future. </p><p> </p><p>I was so excited.</p><p> </p><p>The thing that I quickly learned, was that the Ravens were nothing like how they were shown in the pamphlets. Our coach, the Master, as he insisted we call him, was cruel. He hit us for underperforming. He beat us into submission, he withheld food, he taunted us with failure. I, only in my second year with the Ravens, have scars from his cane. </p><p> </p><p>My first day with the Ravens, he asked me to kneel in front of him. I refused, laughing, thinking that he couldn’t be serious. He beat me with the cane until I collapsed onto my knees, then made me run laps for ‘questioning authority’. </p><p> </p><p>We were not even allowed a normal life outside of the Ravens. Every moment was scheduled. For two years, this was my routine: </p><p> </p><p>Wake up at 4:00 </p><p>Get dressed for practice and eat breakfast before 4:30</p><p>Morning practice from 4:45-6:45</p><p>Shower, dress for classes</p><p>Classes start at 8:00</p><p>Classes end by 3:00</p><p>Afternoon practice 3:45-5:00</p><p>Homework/study/dinner 5:00-9:00</p><p>Evening practice 9:00-10:30</p><p>Lights Out</p><p> </p><p>Repeat. </p><p> </p><p>On weekends, we hit the gym, and practiced all day.</p><p> </p><p>No days off. No going home for the holidays. And any misstep in the instructions, a missed goal, or a bad pass, or a failing grade, would be met with a hit from the cane at best, and some time spent with Riko at worst.</p><p> </p><p>Riko Moriyama was the worst part of the nest. Even though he’s almost three years younger than me, he still scares me more than almost anyone. More than whoever is coming to kill me. They can’t hurt people the way he does.</p><p> </p><p>That’s where the problem really started. I could have dealt with the Master. He was intimidating, and you never wanted him mad, but I could have kept my head down and managed. I could have bit my tongue and survived till graduation, and accepted the million dollar contract, and I could still be alive. But I couldn’t stand by what Rico was doing.</p><p> </p><p>I am sure you, of all people, know the rumors. That the Edgar Allen Ravens are a cult. That they work for the government, and actually recruit people to the CIA. That they are part of the illuminati. And you know the only theory that is true: they work for the mob.</p><p> </p><p>There are certain things that can be expected if you’re part of a mob-affiliated group. There was always the obligatory looking away, pretending not to see blood on the court during practice, and pretending you really believed the man that came with three bodyguards was just a relative of the Masters. I understood that, and I needed the money that would come after graduation, so I turned a blind eye. But I could never look away from one thing.</p><p> </p><p>Riko Moriyama, Kevin Day, Jean Moreau, Nathaniel Wesininski. Four teenagers too young for university, and yet they all lived in the nest with us. Kevin and Rico are easy to explain, adopted and raised as brothers by the Master. But the other two? I had to ask them myself, because no one would tell me. They were sold to the Ravens, and by extension the mob, to pay off their respective families debts. They’re just kids. Nathaniel, especially, is only sixteen. What good are they to pay off debts?</p><p> </p><p>The answer is this: They are trained to be perfect on court, and when they are all graduated from Edgar Allen, they will pay most of their wages back to the mob. </p><p> </p><p>How does Riko factor into this? He, like the other three, is just a kid. How can he be so bad? </p><p> </p><p>Here’s how: Riko Moriyama is a psychopath. I said earlier that the team was often punished. It may have seemed bad, and truly, it is enough to get the whole place shut down on its own. But if we were living in hell, then the other three teens in the building were living in Satan's personal dungeon. They were Riko’s playthings. He had no repercussions for anything he did to them. And he loved to play.</p><p> </p><p>Kevin was in the spotlight enough that Riko never dared to visibly hurt him, but there were no such reservations for the other two. Even to just look at them, Jean and Nathaniel look like death. Anytime Riko was angry, he took it out on them. Occasionally, you could hear one of them screaming in their rooms all the way on the other side of the nest, where I slept. They walked around the nest with burns, cuts, bruises. Then they were expected to perform equally in practice as they had healthy. </p><p> </p><p>Most of us have experienced Riko’s cruelty in some form. Mona, my assigned partner on the team, once cost us a game against the Trojans with a poorly kept goal. That night Riko was sent to our room, and I was forced to hold her down as he cut into her stomach and arms. She was never the same after that.</p><p> </p><p>But why did it take me almost two whole years to come out with this, if it were burning such a huge hole in my morality? I was afraid. I know that once this comes out, someone will die. And it took something to push me over the edge before I decided that I would be ok dying for these kids.</p><p> </p><p>It was five days ago, March 23. Practice went ok, but it wasn’t exciting. Riko was clearly getting antsy, needing something to happen. I tried to ignore him, but I guess I jostled him too hard, or messed up his drill a little, because that night, he came to my room. He held a knife to my back and led me back to his room. I was expecting the sort of thing he had done to Mona. I was not expecting to be met with Jean, tied to the bed, half naked. I won’t write what happened exactly, because I am sure you know.</p><p> </p><p>I will say this: There were three others in the room. Jimmy Harender, Caleb Smithson, and Nathaniel Wesininski. He was being held back by Caleb, while Jimmy… had his way. I barely remember anything of that night, but I remember Riko asking me if I wanted to play, or just watch. I don’t remember saying anything, but I must have refused, because next thing I knew, I was the one holding Nathaniel. He had stopped struggling, and just stood with his arms hanging at his sides. I have never seen anyone ever look the way he did when he turned to me. His eyes were empty, it was clear he had checked out of his body. I don’t think he felt me holding his arms, or heard the other men in the room, or even saw what was happening. </p><p> </p><p>I didn’t hear Jean the whole time. I think that's what gets me, is that they both seemed disturbed, sure, but also wholly resigned. This had happened before. They expected it to happen again. </p><p>    </p><p>Neither of them are even college age yet.</p><p> </p><p>So here we are. I am writing this letter five days after that night. I suppose I should have written it right away, and really, it may have saved those two many more days of hell, but I couldn’t make myself do it right away. I know that by writing this, I am signing my own death warrant. But I think I’ve come to terms with that. Nathaniel and Jean need a chance. Just a chance.</p><p> </p><p>I am leaving Edgar Allen while I’m supposed to be in class today. I’ll drop this letter off and… savor my last moments, I guess. I can’t go home, or call without putting my family in danger, so I don’t know where I may end up. Maybe I’ll try to make it to the ocean. </p><p> </p><p>That’s unimportant. What matters is this: Edgar Allen must  be shut down, and those trapped there need to be freed. My disappearance will leave Riko angry. Those still in the Nest are in real danger. Make sure their story is heard.</p><p> </p><p>All the best,</p><p>Joseph Meinit</p>
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